Elden Keane
A boy and his dog. Appearance Elden is tall and slender with warmly tanned skin and sharp copper-brown eyes. He's obviously been out in the sun a lot, enough so that if anyone takes a good look at him they'll notice that his hair has been bleached through sun and salt water until it's a healthy bronze hue. He has fairly good muscle tone despite being in the middle of an apocalypse where food and water are in short supply. Obviously, he doesn't need a lot of food to really keep himself going as he does quite alright on his own. As for clothing, Elden prefers anything that is comfortable and casual. He hates anything that's formal or semi-formal and it is incredibly difficult to get him in anything that even resembles a suit or khakis. T-shirts, hoodies, shorts, jeans and other things similar to that along with nice sneakers or chuck taylors. Nothing is really off limits for him, if it's comfortable, he'll wear it. In order to protect his obviously skin from being bitten or otherwise infected, he can be seen wearing a long sleeved hoodie or t-shirt with a scarf and usually a pair of sunglasses, his favorite being Ray Bans. His eyes are hardy and used to the sunlight and he can sometimes see better in the dark than most. Inventory These items are all found within his mother's truck along with enough space in the bed to keep dog food bags piled for Jones. Elden normally keeps the more valuable items hidden in places that one wouldn't normally look, such as a small bag labeled 'deer jerky' holds his water bottles and crowbar while another large box in the back of the bed keeps his sleeping bag as well as his hygiene items. He has to make several trips into the city and surrounding areas to make his way into pharmacies to get medicine that he needs. The gas tank is kept in the bed of the truck so that he can have a steady supply of gasoline while he's out on the road and away from places where he may not be able to siphon for gas. *1 sleeping bag *2 water bottles for him and one for Jones *2 bags of dried food and dog food/snacks *1 crowbar *1 bag of six inhalers *1 extra 20 gallon gas tank *Hygiene products *1 lighter Personality This tiny little bronze boy can be a bit of an asshole at times, others he's normally as sweet as caramel and gentle to anyone that he meets. He's a normal kid and usually just views things as they're presented to him, making it a bit difficult for him to completely understand what's going on in the world. He's very willing to be around people and prefers company rather than being alone. Elden absolutely cannot stand being alone for long or when people are fighting. When he's alone and doesn't have Jones with him, Elden sometimes becomes paranoid and will often feel as if he's being watched. It's an issue that was never fully fixed and possibly never will be. If he's around someone that's fighting, Elden will begin tuning things out and eventually just leaving the area regardless of where he's at. As must as he hates being alone, he hates when people get upset over silly things. He doesn't like being used by people either. Elden would give the shirt right off his back if someone needed it from him but he doesn't like people being underhanded in trying to get something form him. He prefers them to simply say it outright and get it over with so that he'll know what he can do to make it possible, if it even is. Elden has a bit of an abnormality to him in the way that he can hear the recently deceased. He's a clairvoyant and sometimes has a hard time ignoring the voices or visions when they start, it's because of this that he can sometimes be very short tempered. It's very unusual for him to verbally snap at people and be generally impatient. He tries to keep his abilities secret but some instances are harder to contain than others and he'll end up blurting things out no matter how inappropriate. Skills *'Clairvoyance:' Elden can see and hear spirits of the recently dead around him. He uses this skill in a peculiar way. When he meets up with someone that he doesn't know but finds that there's a strong spirit, he'll use their information to try to get into the person's head so that he can at least get them to trust that he's not making it up. At times, the spirits are too loud for him to ignore and he ends up telling the person either way. *'Running & Jumping:' Even if he was never fully able to deal with being out and around large amounts of people, Elden still was very athletic since his parents made sure to take him to an indoor gym that was nearby. He can't run as fast as Marcella but he can run for longer time and distance than she is able to. He can jump and do minimal parkour, but he's far better at doing hand holds and flips. *'Lockpicking:' When he was younger, around thirteen, Elden had a large time where he was a bit of a thief. He found that, after the death of his twin, he was very good at getting in and out of a place without being caught. It was because of this that he taught himself how to pick locks with a set. He can also do it with a paper clip and a bobby pin if he's desperate enough. Otherwise, he can manage with a credit card. *'Morse Code:' He and his twin used to use morse code to communicate when they were younger, especially when they were in trouble and had to talk to each other without getting into more trouble. Eventually their parents caught on and they were put in different rooms so that they wouldn't continue the behavior. *'Sneaking:' With Jones nearby, Elden can pretty much sneak around anywhere he wants. He's quiet and can manage in even the most walker infested areas as if he were were never there. His Clairvoyance helps and hinders this. Sometimes he can't tell if he's seeing a walker or a spirit until he sees it turn around. Either way, he hasn't been caught in a mob of walkers just yet. History Elden's parents were full Irish and hailed from Dublin, Ireland and are part of the Catholic religion. The immigrated from Ireland to the United States after having their twins, Delaney and Elden. Their father had been laid off in Ireland but promoted to a new company in America, where they were already moving in with family members so that they could get by. Even as small children, Elden and his albino twin were around each other all the time. One was never without the other and if they were, then it was an extremely rare occasion or one went to the bathroom. Since the family was living on lower income in another person's home, they kind of kept to themselves, not generally getting into anything unless they were talked to. The boys stayed silent and did well in school, never having a call home or detention. When they were thirteen, the twins were enrolled in a new school across town, a private catholic school that their parents had picked for them. Their father had gotten involved with a better law firm that was paying more than his old one was, even though they were talking about going back to Ireland for a time. Elden's mother was thoroughly against the idea as their sons were already too ingrained in their studies to risk having to go back. On their way to school one morning, Elden and Delaney were racing in the street and failed to notice a traffic light had changed. This failure to realize it ended in Delaney being killed by oncoming traffic. Elden was traumatized and tried shaking his brother awake, screaming in the middle of the street until a man pulled him off of his brother. A police officer had to hold him tightly to keep him from wandering back but he was crying too hard to do anything, triggering his asthma and sending him into a severe attack. He was sent to the hospital and had to be put into a medically induced coma to recover. This lasted for six weeks and, after coming out of it, began to see spirits far more clearly. The twin boys had showed signs of it all of their lives but it hadn't come to fruition in Delaney. His mother and father worried over him after he woke up. They had time to mourn their lost son but Elden was still heartbroken at Delaney's death. He ended up sobbing quietly when he remembered what had happened but no one comforted him, his mother simply told him to suck it up and deal with it. His father blamed him and often said the wrong kid had died and made him feel like pure crap. Elden's mother never once tried to tell his father to stop talking like that and, at times, would agree with a simple 'yep'. This broke his heart even further and Elden began staying away from home. After he recovered enough from his brother's death that he could be on his own again, Elden was fifteen and feeling the loss more than ever. It was because of this that there was a small amount of time when he found more joy in stealing and breaking into houses than he did going to school or playing video games. It gave him a thrill he hadn't felt since before the day he raced with his brother. He ended up terrorizing his home of Asheville for several months before his parents found out about what it was he had been doing, finding the stolen items in his bedroom one evening. In order for them to save face, they ended up moving to Edenton, North Carolina. The jabs at the 'wrong son had died' stuff continued on here as well, his parents being downright disgusted that they now had to drive even further to be able to visit their other son's grave. The no longer favored Elden nearly as much as they had before Delaney's death. Getting himself situated in the new school, Elden had more trouble out of other kids than he did anyone else. Within a few days, there were rumors that he was gay and were already a few about how he was able to know things he wasn't supposed to. People either called him a 'teacher's pet' or a freak. After a while, Elden managed to make a few friends but was immediately sent to the councilor's office after having brought up that one of the girl's recently deceased grandmother had unfinished business. It was that day that his mother ended up getting a call from the principal and informed the woman that Elden's strange abilities were unwelcome in the catholic school. His mother brought him home that day and screamed at him for being so humiliating and told him he needed to grow up. While he was still relatively gentle with people, Elden shut himself off. His father ended up putting him into a home schooling program where the man hired several tutors now that they were far better off than they had been before. His mother and father were very strict over his school work, expecting him to get impressive grades. They were pressuring him to go on and be a doctor, wanting the young man to keep up with his other family members that had already managed to become one. During this time, they pressured him to suppress his 'abilities'. They hated thinking that their last child was abnormal and ignored it in favor of getting grandchildren out of him at the least. The two bargained with him about suppressing his abilities and, in return, allowed him to pick an animal as a companion to keep him out of trouble. At the local pound, there were puppies that had been brought in and scheduled to be euthanized within a few weeks. He went through the puppies and watched them when one came to him and climbed into his jacket. It was then that he realized what kind of puppy it was and decided he was going to pick this one. It was a German Shepherd puppy that just wanted to be loved. Telling his mom that he wanted the little guy, he smiled at her for the first time in years, catching her off-guard with the genuine happiness that was in his eyes. Slightly flustered and surprised, she allowed it and adopted the puppy for him. For several weeks, the only thing that he wanted to do was be around the puppy to the point where his own mother began getting rather jealous of Jones. The dog was good to him though, Jones was very good at finding Elden's inhalers in case of an attack and usually had an extra in the little pouch attached to his collar in case Elden needed it. It was because of this that many people began to think that Elden and Jones shared some kind spiritual bond. A lot of people in his mother's church even commented that they believed that Jones was sent to Elden by his brother in heaven but they never said that in front of Elden out of fear that they would upset him. Elden ended up graduating from high school early due to being home schooled. He was able to get his diploma at sixteen but agreed to wait until he was eighteen to go on to college, it was also this home schooling that kept him from learning anything about the infection once it began. Of course, being the sixteen year old he was, Elden wasn't all that interested in the news and would simply turn the channel instead of trying to watch it. He fell asleep that night, his parents having left the house to get groceries, with Jones on the bed beside of him. It was Jones who first heard the walkers as they were passing by the house and used his nose to close Elden's bedroom door. The sound of the latch closing woke him up and made him curious about what the dog was doing and it was within a few minutes later that he ended up seeing the walkers out of his second story bedroom window. Getting his things together in the large army bag his Irish cousin had sent him, Elden made certain to get things for Jones as well. He waited alone in his room before heading downstairs the next morning to get things for the road and left, taking his mother's truck with him.